Microsoft Copilot: Complete Guide to Free AI in Windows & Edge

Microsoft Copilot has quietly become one of the most accessible AI assistants available today. Built directly into Windows 11, Edge browser, and the Bing search engine, it gives hundreds of millions of users free access to GPT-4 powered AI without needing a separate app or subscription. Whether you are writing emails, summarizing documents, or generating images, Copilot is already on your device and ready to help.

What Is Microsoft Copilot?

Microsoft Copilot is an AI assistant powered by OpenAI's GPT-4 and DALL-E 3 models, integrated across the Microsoft ecosystem. Unlike ChatGPT, which lives in its own app, Copilot is embedded where you already work: your operating system, browser, and Office apps. The free tier includes GPT-4 access, image generation with DALL-E 3, and web-grounded answers that pull from current Bing search results. This means responses include recent information rather than being limited to a training cutoff date.

How to Access Copilot Everywhere

Windows 11: Press the Copilot key on newer keyboards or click the Copilot icon in the taskbar. You can ask it to change settings, summarize files, or draft text without leaving your desktop. Edge Browser: Click the Copilot sidebar icon or press Ctrl+Shift+Period. It can summarize the page you are reading, answer questions about it, or help you compose replies. Bing.com: Visit bing.com/chat for the full web experience with no sign-in required for basic usage. Mobile: Download the Copilot app for iOS or Android for on-the-go access with voice input and image generation.

Key Features Worth Using

GPT-4 for free is the headline feature. While ChatGPT reserves GPT-4 for paid users, Copilot gives everyone access to the same model at no cost. Image generation with DALL-E 3 lets you create detailed images from text descriptions, also free. Notebook mode provides a larger input area for complex prompts up to 18,000 characters. Plugins connect Copilot to services like OpenTable, Kayak, and Instacart for actionable results. The Vision feature lets you upload images and ask questions about them, useful for identifying objects, reading text from photos, or getting help with math problems.

Copilot in Microsoft 365

Copilot Pro ($20/month) and Copilot for Microsoft 365 ($30/user/month for businesses) unlock AI inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams. In Word, you can draft entire documents from a prompt or rewrite selected paragraphs. In Excel, Copilot analyzes data, creates formulas, and builds charts from natural language requests. PowerPoint users can generate entire presentations from a single topic sentence. Outlook gets AI-drafted replies and email summaries. These integrations save significant time for anyone who lives in Office apps daily.

Tips for Getting Better Results

Use Copilot's conversation styles wisely: Creative for brainstorming and content generation, Balanced for general use, and Precise for factual queries and research. When working in Edge, highlight text on any webpage before opening Copilot to automatically set context for your question. For image generation, be specific about style, lighting, and composition. Copilot supports iterative refinement, so ask it to modify previous outputs rather than starting over each time.

Pricing Breakdown

The free tier covers GPT-4 chat, DALL-E 3 image generation, web search grounding, and plugins. Copilot Pro at $20/month adds priority access during peak times, faster GPT-4 Turbo responses, integration with Microsoft 365 apps, and 100 daily image generations with boost credits. For businesses, Microsoft 365 Copilot at $30/user/month includes everything in Pro plus enterprise security, admin controls, and Microsoft Graph integration for company-specific context.

Getting Started

Copilot is already on your Windows 11 PC and in your Edge browser. Open it now and try asking it to summarize a long article, draft an email, or generate an image. The fact that GPT-4 and DALL-E 3 are available at no cost makes Copilot one of the best entry points into AI for anyone in the Microsoft ecosystem.